Chiangmai Leather

12 December, 2009Saturday

To me, leather is almost synonymous with Thailand and all kinds of leather goods could be found in all the markets we visited in Bangkok and Chiangmai. However, in Chiangmai's Chang Moi Road (say that several times quickly), we came across a shop that sold finished leather products as well as all kinds of leather pieces, scraps, decorations, finishings and accessories.

No doubt this shop would only be of interest to those who are a little crafty and like to make their own leather stuff. However, I found a whole box full of rejected Traveler's Notebook covers.

Some were already stamped with the brand and all were fully cut covers. To make them complete, only an elastic string and a paper notebook insert or two were needed. I've been using these Midori Traveler's Notebooks over the last ten months to keep all the ephemera I've collected from traveling in East Asia.

The complete notebook is quite expensive in the shops in Hong Kong and Japan, but these were only sold by weight. I bought several covers as well as some strips and a sheet of other leather and the total was less than £2!